'The Year of Magical Thinking' by Joan DidionThis memoir by the author, whose husband John Gregory Dunne of a heart attack while their daughter lay hospitalized in a coma, "reminds us everything can change in an instant," writes NPR listener James.

'The Year of Magical Thinking' by Joan Didion

Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking reminds us everything can change in an instant. Despite her deeply personal and tragic subject matter, Didion remains on firm ground at all times, drawing the reader into her rituals of grieving.